• Harvard Law Review,  QP Blog

    HARVARD LAW REVIEW‘s Jan. 2017 issue: Obama on criminal justice, Tushnet on trademark

    The January 2017 issue features these notable contents: • Commentary, President Barack Obama, “The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform” • Article, Rebecca Tushnet, “Registering Disagreement: Registration in Modern American Trademark Law” • Book Review, Scott Hershovitz, “The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Tort Law” • Note, “Repackaging Zauderer” • Note, “Mending the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Approach to Consideration of Juvenile Status” Furthermore, student commentary analyzes Recent Cases on: whether mug shots may be exempt from FOIA disclosure; a Ninth Circuit ruling that concealed carry is not protected by the Second Amendment; collective action waivers in employment arbitration agreements under the NLRA; whether warrantless dog sniffs outside…

  • Books,  Legal Legends

    Murphy’s classic Elements of Judicial Strategy is back, adding a new Foreword by Lee Epstein & Jack Knight

    Now in a readily available, modern presentation, and adding a substantive 2016 Foreword by Lee Epstein and Jack Knight, this classic of law and political science is presented to a new generation of thoughtful observers of the U.S. Supreme Court and how its justices create judicial decisions. As Epstein and Knight write, this book is “extraordinary. It’s the rarest of rare: a breakthrough of the path-marking, even paradigm-shifting, variety….” Its publication offered a “huge conceptual breakthrough. Elements was the first to offer a strategic account” of judging, and its “framework forever changed the study of judicial behavior.” It remains influential to current thought, extending even in its “global reach,” and…

  • Books,  Books Defying Categories

    Eric Sellin’s The Dramatic Concepts of Antonin Artaud is Digitally Remastered,™ with new foreword by Peter Thompson

    Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) conceived and inaugurated the Theater of Cruelty, a dramatic movement that has had a profound influence on the avant garde theater in Europe and the United States. The movement is exemplified by the Peter Brook production of Marat/Sade. This book, the first to analyze Artaud’s theories, their sources, and the extent to which he succeeded in implementing them in his own plays, is now available in a 2017 digital edition and new printings, readily accessible to scholars and interested fans of literary criticism and the modern theater worldwide. The new editions add a thoughtful Foreword by Professor Peter Thompson of Roger Williams University. This sophisticated study will…

  • Books,  Fiction

    Lawrence Friedman’s mystery novel A Body in the House follows the death of a Stanford professor

    Lawyer Frank May is, as always, reluctant to get involved in murder cases. But when his young client, Margot, comes back from a vacation with her husband and finds the dead body of a woman in their house, Frank is drawn in despite himself. Who was this woman? And when another murder occurs—this time on the campus of Stanford University—you have to wonder: Are the two deaths connected? And does a quirky Hungarian violinist have something to do with the case? Baffling questions, to be sure. But in the end, Frank finds the surprising key that unlocks the mystery. … A new QP Mystery, in the series The Frank May Chronicles.…

  • Books,  Harvard Law Review

    HARVARD LAW REVIEW‘s Dec. 2016 issue: legislative intent, corporate buyouts, and the trolley dilemma

    The December 2016 issue, Number 2, features these contents: * Article, “Constitutionally Forbidden Legislative Intent,” by Richard H. Fallon, Jr. * Article, “Deal Process Design in Management Buyouts,” by Guhan Subramanian * Book Review, “Law and Moral Dilemmas,” by Bert I. Huang * Note, “Charming Betsy and the Intellectual Property Provisions of Trade Agreements” * Note, “Political Questions, Public Rights, and Sovereign Immunity” Furthermore, student commentary analyzes Recent Cases on equitable relief from a foreign judgment under RICO, mootness after a 2014 Missouri election, compelling an internet service provider to produce data stored overseas, immunity for failure-to-warn claims under the Communications Decency Act, whether the federal cannabis prohibition is a…

  • Harvard Law Review

    Harvard Law Review Nov. 2016: Annual Supreme Court Review and Essays for Justice Scalia

    The November issue is the special annual review of the U.S. Supreme Court’s previous Term. The issue also includes an In Memoriam section honoring the memory of Justice Antonin Scalia. Contributors include Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. and Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, as well as Cass Sunstein, Martha Minow, John Manning, and Rachel Barkow. Each year, the Supreme Court issue is introduced by noteworthy and extensive contributions from recognized scholars. In this issue, for the 2015 Term, articles include: • Foreword: “Looking for Power in Public Law,” by Daryl J. Levinson • Essay: “The Age of Scalia,” by Jamal Greene • Comment: “Fisher‘s Cautionary Tale and the…

  • Books,  Fiction

    David Crump’s courtroom novel The Judas Lawyer takes Robert Herrick into a sea of corporate greed

    The buzzer sounds from inside the jury room to signal a verdict. A sharp, unnatural noise—full of promise and danger. But when the judge reads the verdict, it isn’t what anyone has been expecting. Robert Herrick is the lawyer for William Grant, who is badly injured. But now, Robert’s chances of helping his client seemnonexistent, even though the jury has rewarded two other plaintiffs from the same accident with huge damages. The pain of this impending defeat is overwhelming. But Robert forces himself to keep fighting for William Grant. The lawyer on the other side is Jimmy Coleman, a no-holds-barred former gang member. Jimmy now is head of litigation at…

  • Books,  Law Reviews, Miscellaneous

    New England Law Review‘s recent issues of Volume 50 discuss press freedom after Hulk Hogan/Gawker and the feminist legacy of Mary Joe Frug

    The New England Law Review offers its issues in convenient digital formats for e-reader devices, apps, pads, and smartphones. The second issue of Volume 50 (Wint. 2016) features a Book Symposium analyzing Prof. Amy Gajda’s new study The First Amendment Bubble: How Privacy and Paparazzi Threaten a Free Press. (The next issue, No. 3, is noted below). Contributions include: • “The Present of Newsworthiness,” by Amy Gajda • “Protecting the Public from Itself: Paternalism and Irony in Defining Newsworthiness,” by Clay Calvert • “The Problem with Free Press Absolutism,” by Sonja R. West In addition, Number 2 includes these extensive student contributions: • “Marijuana Side Effects,” by Christine L. Vana (on the…

  • Books,  Classics of Law & Society

    Meir Dan-Cohen’s 2nd edition of the recognized study Rights, Persons, and Organizations asks why corporations are legally persons

    Corporations have legal rights, and so do many other large-scale organizations. But what does it mean to ascribe rights and “personhood” to such entities, and what is the rationale for doing so? These are central questions for an organizational society such as ours, and yet they have received consistently little attention in modern political and legal thought. The surface metaphor of treating corporations as persons with “rights” carries profound consequences — sometimes even reducing individual freedoms in light of the organization’s status. Especially after such recent Supreme Court decisions as Citizens United, this effect is as acute today as when this book was first written. Now in its Second Edition,…

  • Books,  Harvard Law Review

    Harvard Law Review, June ’16: Institutional memory in criminal process; statutory interpretation; and international law

    The June 2016 issue, Number 8, of the Harvard Law Review features these contents: • Article, “Systemic Facts: Toward Institutional Awareness in Criminal Courts,” by Andrew Manuel Crespo • Book Review, “Fixing Statutory Interpretation,” by Brett M. Kavanaugh • Book Review, “Knowledge and Politics in International Law,” by Samuel Moyn • Note, “Major Question Objections” • Note, “Chinese Common Law? Guiding Cases and Judicial Reform” • Note, “OSHA’s Feasibility Policy: The Implications of the ‘Infeasibility’ of Respirators” Furthermore, student commentary analyzes Recent Cases on sex-discrimination implications of gender-normed FBI fitness requirements; trademark law and the antidisparagement rule as a constitutional problem; practical elimination of the adverse-interest exception as a defense…